Bruce Rauner debuted his latest attack ad against Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday — a TV spot called “Headlines” that relies in part on independent news stories but features headlines the Republican’s campaign made up and doctored to make them sound more critical.

The 30-second spot takes myriad shots at Quinn on the issues of unemployment, education, tax increases, education and the Democratic governor’s troubled 2010 anti-violence grant program that’s under federal investigation.

The ad overlays what the Rauner campaign calls “headlines” over TV screens. Some of the headlines are correct, such as one from a Chicago Tribune online story saying “Quinn signs tax hike into law” when the governor signed a post-election income tax increase in 2011.

But in two other cases, the Rauner ad makes up headlines that did not appear with the source cited, and in at least three other cases, headlines were shortened to buttress the campaign’s attack on Quinn. Rauner campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf defended the technique, saying in an e-mail that “due to time and space constraints, the phrases had to be condensed.”

In one case, the ad displays the words “Quinn education cuts lead to teacher layoffs and larger class sizes,” which the Rauner campaign attributes to an April 11 Associated Press report that appeared on the Washington Times web site.

But the actual headline was “Quinn, Rauner spar on education in 1st 2014 event” from a story about a joint appearance by the two candidates before the Illinois Education Association.

The quoted “headline” by the Rauner camp’s ad also does not appear as a phrase in the AP’s news article. Instead, the “headline” paraphrases a Rauner attack on Quinn from the event, not an independent statement of fact from the AP.

Another quoted “headline” says “Pat Quinn. Pay to Play,” citing a June 20 AP story. The actual headline in the source material provided by Rauner’s campaign was another Washington Times web headline: “Event honoring Quinn raises ‘pay to play’ issues.” It ran over a story about the fundraisers behind a Democratic Governors Association event honoring Quinn. Again, the phrase quoted in the ad did not appear in the story.

The ad also quoted a March 26 “headline” from Crain’s Chicago Business’ website: “Quinn doubles down on tax hike,” which was shortened from the actual headline, “Quinn doubles down on tax hike gamble.” It appeared above a column reflecting on the politics of the Democratic governor’s election-year call to make permanent the 2011 income tax increase.

Two other “headlines” cited in the ads were shortened from how each originally appeared in the Tribune and Sun-Times.

Politicians often use quotes and headlines from newspapers in their campaign ads to bring to their message an air of independent credibility. But David Yepsen, executive director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, said the Rauner campaign risks serious distraction from its message against Quinn.

“This strikes me as some sloppy work by his consultants or staff because he doesn’t need to do it. There are enough real headlines that make Quinn look bad that they don’t’ need to cook some up or alter some to make the ad work,” said Yepsen, a former national political columnist for the Des Moines Register.

“Most campaigns, when you do negative advertising, they vet the stuff pretty carefully anymore because you know somebody’s going to check to see,” he said. “If they’re wrong or distorted, then you’re on defense and that undermines the quality of your overall message.”

Rauner’s campaign stood by the ad and said “everything” in it is “accurate.”

It’s not the first time during the race that the veracity of the campaigns have been called into question.

Last month, the Quinn campaign released a made-up media advisory about Rauner’s whereabouts, and listing the first names of the GOP candidate’s communications staffers. Quinn’s camp called it “clearly a joke.”

The Illinois Republican Party, with the acquiescence of the Rauner campaign, followed with a phony release against Quinn that used a made-up quote from U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and listed Durbin’s governmental spokesperson as a contact.

In the 2006 race for governor, then-Republican primary candidate Jim Oberweis ran ads against rival Judy Baar Topinka, the current state comptroller, that featured made-up headlines from newspapers. Oberweis, a state senator from Sugar Grove, is currently running against Durbin for U.S. Senate.